Follow Friday: Smart Cookie, Andrea Baxter
by Erin Gee in Follow Friday on November 5th, 2010
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TweetAndrea Baxter (@andreabaxter) is a double threat. She’s the Founder and Principal of Vancouver based Bratface Marketing (@bratfacemrktg), plus the co-founder of Smart Cookies (@smartcookies), a money group who has been featured on Oprah. Yep, you heard right. Andrea is a frequent contributor to a number of different shows, blogs and columns, plus she is active in social media, making her life seem chaotic. But, Andrea handles it all with ease – never one to complain.
Coming up on November 25, 2010, Andrea will be speaking at The Buzz Event: Reboot, hosted by Reach Magazine and Vancity Buzz. This is a great opportunity to listen to a successful, local entrepreneur speak. Plus, it significantly decreases your 6-degrees of separation with Oprah.
Why should people follow you?
If you follow me, you will most likely get the brutal truth on a lot of things I am passion about – both business and some personal. That, and why I am obsessed with Bethenny Frankel from the Real Housewives of NYC and from the SkinnyGirl mecca (really, if only you knew – she is a very smart business woman and built a hugely successful brand out of nothing)! When it comes to Twitter, I try and keep it fairly business oriented and share articles I read that I find helpful and interesting but also a mix of my passions, hobbies and interests (sparsely though). My life lately is all consumed not only in growing Bratface Marketing but also being invited to speak at some wicked business forums, universities and entrepreneurial events so I make sure I keep everyone in the loop on those as well. I think its a great platform to share things with an audience you otherwise would never have the exposure to.
What do you love about your job?
I could create a huge list of reasons why I love my job, but definitely the independence, freedom, control over my own destiny and business are the biggest reasons. I also love that I now get to choose who I want to work with and what projects I choose to take on. I also get to do a lot of things I never had the opportunity to do when I worked for a company, so its definitely opened those kind of doors to explore and see what is really out there.
What do you want to achieve through Twitter?
I definitely try to abide by the “tweet something important & engaging” rule but sometimes I get a bit overwhelmed and tweet on more, non-business related topics (for example, I like to brag about what I made for dinner and show it off)! However, my biggest goal in using Twitter is to position myself as an expert in what I do and share things I find that are relevant to my audience and customers (because my clients follow me too!). Its still a learning curve for me as well, no matter how much of a social media ‘expert’ people think I am. I think there is a lot to still learn about Twitter because it’s constantly changing and I am not afraid to say that I am still learning.
Can you be an entrepreneur and maintain a work/life balance?
Yes absolutely. Have I mastered this yet? Not quite but I am working on it. I think the hardest thing is knowing when to set certain hours to work and knowing when to shut the computer down. I feel the need to constantly be connected and I don’t necessarily see this as a strength but more of a curse and bad habit. One thing I do miss about working for someone else and going into an office each day is the structure it created for me. Working at home is difficult but there are perks. I think most entrepreneurs are very well aware of this and always feel a need to obtain the work/life balance. I have yet to meet an entrepreneur who has mastered this and if you are out there, I want to talk to you!
Do you have any Twitter pet peeves?
Of course I do! I’m not a huge fan of the new Twitter ads that are popping up on celebrity twitter feeds….I don’t feel that its the best way to promote/advertise products/services but I also know its the direction advertising is going as a lot of traditional advertising mediums are now becoming obsolete. I also hate the “auto DM” when you follow someone or something. I really don’t see the sense of it and so many people are doing it now, its nothing new. I’m sure i have more pet peeves but I will keep my rant to a minimum.
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